Why Are New York Startups Losing to Boston?

New York startups have failed to produce as many IPOs as their counterparts in Boston. What’s rotten in the Big Apple?

Jeff Bussgang, general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners and former entrepreneur, writes that after blogging about Boston and New York startups, he had concluded that “the New York market had a stronger pipeline of pre-IPO companies that would be attractive to the public markets than Boston.” After Kayak’s successful IPO, Bussgang took another look and realized he was “dead wrong.”

Bussgang writes that not only has Boston “produced far more IPOs than New York” in the past 18 months, “the remaining pipeline in Boston seems to be quite strong.” To explain New York startups stumbling, he presents a few potential theories. Is it that “the IPO culture hasn’t fully permeated NYC?” Or is the Big Apple home to companies that simply aren’t as dynamic or as innovative?